Cultural Variability and Drift in Himalayan Hills

Cultural Variability and Drift in the Himalayan Hills GERALD D. BERREMAN University of California, Berkeley HE lower Himalaya mountains between western Kashmir and eastern T Nepal are populated by peoples sharing common and distinct cultural, linguistic, and historical traditions. Therefore, this is clearly a "culture area" within the usual meaning of that term. The populations of this area, collec tively termed Pahari ("of the mountains"), comprise a variety of subgroups which share basic cultural patterns but show local differences in such features as dialect, ceremonial forms, deities worshipped, house styles, dress and orna mentation, range of castes, and rules of marriage. These variations are often extremely limited in distribution so that it is possible for one acquainted with a region to identify readily the particular valley or ridge from which a person comes by his speech or dress. It is not difficult to pass through two or more such areas in a day's trek. This highly localized cultural variability is especially striking to one acquainted with the people of the plains to the south. A second impressive feature, at least in the subarea to be reported here, is the comparative cultural homogeneity across caste lines within a particular locality in the hills. A person's caste affiliation is generally impossible to deter mine, even by someone of his own area, except by direct inquiry or by observ ing him in his traditional occupation. In this account, the facts supporting these generalizations will be briefly described. Then an attempt will be made to analyze and explain them in terms of common conditions and processes. Some further light may thereby be thrown upon the concepts of cultural drift and culture area, their usefulness and relationship to one another. The research reported here was carried out in and about the village of Sirkanda, situated in the lower JIimalaya mountains of North India, about 150 miles north and slightly east of Delhi and within a day's hike of the well known hill station, Mussoorie.1 Sirkanda is large for a hill village, containing some 384 residents, half of whom live all or most of the time in outlying cattle sheds or field houses and half of whom live in the village proper. The people of Sirkanda are speakers of a subdialect of the Central Pahari language or dialect group. They live on the western border of the area in which that language is spoken, next to Jaunsar Bawar where begins the Western Pahari language.2 They are also on the western border of the former princely state (now district) of Tehri Garhwal. They spend most of their lives within the 4 air-mile radius of Sirkanda which comprises the 3 parallel spurs of hills known as Bhatbair ("sheep's den"), containing less than 5,000 people in 60 villages and settle 774 [BERREMAN] Cultural Variability in the Himalayan Hills 775 ments. Their lands, their relatives, and the people with whom they deal for goods and services are nearly all found within this area. PAHARI CULTURE AREA The narrow crescent comprising the lower Himalayas qualifies as a culture area as well as any area could, other than an isolated island. It is sharply de fined culturally and geographically. Its people are considered by themselves and by others to be ethnically distinct. They are known collectively as Pahari. They acknowledge this appellation, distinguishing other Indians from them selves as Desi ("of the country") and the Tibeto-Burmese mountain people as Bhotiya. High-caste Paharis-those who claim Brahmin and Rajput status -are dominant numerically and economically. They have long been known as Khasa or Khasiya and are thought by scholars to be the descendants of Aryan speaking immigrants from Central Asia (Grierson 1916: 7). The Pahari service castes, widely and loosely referred to as Dom, are generally said to be descend ants of pre-Aryan indigenes (Walton 1911: 97). Paharis are physically indis tinguishable from other residents of North India, and they speak an Indo Aryan language closely related to that of Rajasthan (Grierson 1916: 2). They are not tribal people in any conventional sense of that term. Rather, they are hill-dwelling Hindus who, though undoubtedly rustic by the standards of their plains-dwelling countrymen, share much of the tradition of North Indian village Hindu culture. Paharis are effectively isolated from close contact with non-Paharis. To the north are the high Himalayas inhabited only in pockets by the racially, linguistically, and culturally distinct Bhotiyas with whom contacts have been limited.3 At the foot of the mountains to the south lie two uninhabited and un inviting strips of land, the bhabar (barren and rocky) and below that the tarai (low, swampy, and malarial). Beyond these are the plains from which some, and perhaps ultimately all, Paharis once came, but whose people have long been in infrequent and unintensive contact with the hill regions. The distinctiveness of the Paharis as a group is suggested by the fact that they share a common and distinctive linguistic stock. They also share a num ber of other cultural features which distinguish them from the rest of the North Indian cU,lture area and specifically from the plains-dwellers adjacent to them. These features, like their language, are not entirely unique or divorced from those of the rest of North India, but are divergent forms grounded in a common heritage. In emphasizing differences, care must be taken not to ignore the numerous and basic similarities common to Paharis and other North In dians. Differences are, however, the primary subject of this analysis. Among distinguishing Pahari characteristics are: (1) A somewhat distinctive caste structure wherein there is a major di vision between the dominant high or twice-born castes ("big castes" in local parlance), made up of Brahmins and Rajputs, and the "untouchable" (achut) low or "small" castes. The former are the land-owning agricultural ists; the latter comprise all of the service castes (blacksmiths, carpenters, i76 American Anthropologist [62, 1960 LOCAL AREAS ! 20 mi. , SCALE - Cultural"'II"tullfic boundar)' Administrative boundar, FIG, 1. Pahari language distribution, with detail of area studi,ed. weavers, musicians, shoemakers, and others), collectively termed Dom, and make up only about 10 percent of the population in any area. While there is hierarchical caste ranking within each of these two major categories, it is of significance primarily to those within that category. From across the high low caste pollution barrier, it appears insignificant. The range of castes found in the hills is smaller than in the plains. Conspicuous by their absence are indigenous Vaisya (merchants) and Sudra (clean caste artisans). On the other hand, occupational variability within castes is considerable in the hills (Berreman 1959: 123). (2) A number of rules pertaining to marriage which would be unaccept BERREMAN] Cultural Variability in the Himalayan Hills 777 able to many plains groups and especially to those of high caste. These in clude bride-price marriage with no necessity for a Sanskritic marriage cere mony, polyandry in some areas, levirate, divorce by mutual consent, remar riage of widows and divorcees, toleration of intercaste marriage within the high- or low-caste group. There is also a good deal of postmarital sexual freedom and sanctioned relations of brothers with one another's wives. Mar riage is universally prohibited only in own and mother's clan, and village exogamy is not everywhere the rule. (3) No seclusion of women and freer participation of women in most as pects of life than on the plains, including their participation in singing and dancing at festivals. Relatively free informal contact between the sexes is usual. (4) A number of religious and ritual features such as absence of the re quirement for a Sanskritic marriage ceremony and absence of the require ment for a sacred thread ceremony for high-caste boys, though such cere monies are coming rapidly into vogue in some areas. Distinctive Pahari marriage and death ceremonies are performed. There is a great reliance upon mediums and diviners and in some areas the Brahmin priest is rela tively less important than on the plains. Frequent and elaborate ritual puri fication and other religiously motivated acts common on the plains are less widespread in the hills. There are many distinctively Pahari religious beliefs and forms of worship. Animal sacrifice is a part of most Pahari ceremonies, and buffalo sacrifice is found in some areas. Paharis are widely known for their devotion to the Pandavas of M ahabharata fame and to Siva. The unique and spectacular rope-sliding ceremony is performed in honor of the latter (Berreman 1959: 197 ff.). (5) Distinctive folklore, songs, dances, and festivals. (6) Consumption of meat and liquor by all castes. (7) Greater flexibility of intercaste relations and freer intercaste inter action than on the plains. The caste hierarchy is important and caste status differences are actively enforced, but the rules allow considerably more con tact and informal interaction than is usual in India. (8) In addition to a nucleated settlement adjacent to a concentration of village lands there are temporary-cum-permanent dwellings on widely scattered and often distant agricultural and grazing lands. These are thought of as part of the village even when other villages intervene. (9) Terrace agriculture with primary dependence on millets, wheat, and barley. Soil productivity is maintained by systematic fertilization, crop rotation, and fallowing. Water is scarce but wherever possible is used for irrigated rice cultivation. (10) Dwellings of stone and timbers, often with slate roofs. Distinctive architecture of two stories with lower floor as barn and upper floor as living area, often with large open veranda or porch at the upper level.

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